Microsoft's "Zo" chatbot picked up some offensive habits

Just when we were about to give up hope in ever finding a convenient way to check out Twitter-happenings, some students at the University of Tokyo and Waseda University have come to our rescue. Their bizarre creation is the Kokonatchi, a cuddly, gyrating robot of sorts, much in the vein of Nabaztag, that flashes multicolor LEDs and wiggles in an adorable seizure when you've got a new Tweet to look at. We're a little unclear on the software side, but it appears you can assign certain alerts and even spoken words to certain Tweet-ers or Tweet-agories. They'll be retailing this fall for around $45 a pop, and you can check them out in action after the break.